My Played Video Games Review: Altered Beast for the Sega Genesis
Altered Beast is a 1988 beat 'em up arcade game produced by Sega of Japan. It proved to be more popular outside Japan. It was selected to be ported and made as the pack-in game for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in North America and Europe in 1989.
I was got to play this on a bootleg compilation games cartridge containing 5 games during the early 1990s.
The Story
Enter a time when the gods ruled the world and real men were warriors. It was a time of conflict between good against evil, a place filed with danger.
Summoned from the dead by the god Zeus to rescue the goddess Athena, you will venture into the Underworld with the ability to transform into legendary creatures with great strength in order to destroy Neff the demon - forever!
The Graphics and Sound
The game was based on the arcade version. The whole point of Altered Beast was to show off the graphics power of the Sega Genesis, and to also show how identical it was to the arcade port. Most games back then were disappointing when they were ported from the arcade to the home console. The graphics didn't just look the same. Altered Beast, however, is a great port. The graphics were quite ahead of its time. But they look dated now.
"Wise fwom your gwave (rise from your grave)". These are spoken when you start the game. To have them spoken out clearly is something that did not happen often that time in home console games. The music on the other hand is not that good but suit the game's atmosphere. There are only five levels but no different song for each level.
The Gameplay
You simply walk from the left to the right, beating anything that gets in your way. Occasionally, you encounter blue boars. Kill them and you get a blue orb that transforms your character when collected. The first two make him stronger, the third makes your character into the altered beast.
These transformations include turning into werewolves or weredragons depending on the level. These creature morphs are strong enough to take on the boss of the level. The twist is that he too can transform too but into a monster bigger and tougher than yours.
The length of the levels depends on how good you are. The boss pops up at various intervals throughout the level. If you meet him after turning into the altered beast then you can fight him and proceed to the next stage. If, however, you did not get enough orbs then you must go further into the level before having a chance to face the boss again.
The boss battles are pretty tough. You just need to memorize its patterns and then it will be easy.
The levels are damn short and so is the game. The co-op play mainly brings the replay value that will make you keep coming back for more. As for the single-player, it was fun for the first time through but it is not really worth the second time.
My Verdict
Overall, Altered Beast is a good retro classic. Despite a few flaws, it is kinda fun to play once in a while alone or with a friend. It might be something you might want to finish again when you got some time.
Retro gamers will enjoy this game a lot but most modern gamers will go bitch-ass whiny and will shove it aside.
Play this on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive or on your favorite emulators.